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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25884307">Wine stained letters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BIFF1/pseuds/BIFF1'>BIFF1</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bad Education (UK TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drinking, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Jing the writer, jailbird mitchell, vague sex scene</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:14:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,415</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25884307</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BIFF1/pseuds/BIFF1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jing is dealt a particularly painful rejection while in Paris and while drunk on cheap wine exhausts her contacts looking for comfort and validation. Mitchell isn't her first choice but he turns out to be the best choice. Through a series of letters shared between them their friendship grows into something worthy of a best seller.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mitchell Harper/Jing Hua</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Wine stained letters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>The look on his face told her his answer before his mouth struggled to form the correct English words for <em> You are a nice girl, but I don't like you that way </em>. It was a mix of disgust and that strange put upon look as he tried to figure out exact what to say to keep their friendship from being ripped to shreads but also clearly tell her he'd rather be celibate that touch her that way.</p><p> </p><p>She bit her lip to keep control of herself and it made the rejection taste of blood. She would absolutely not cry.</p><p> </p><p>She would not.</p><p> </p><p>Jing would rather eat glass than let this pretty boy know how much he had affected her.</p><p> </p><p>"I see." She nodded and turned away from him, walking away she grabbed the bottle of wine from the table and dared someone to take it from her with silent glares.</p><p> </p><p>She's drunk off a cheap bottle of wine by the time she exhausts her cell phone contacts.</p><p> </p><p>Jing is not particularly proud of herself but she leaves drunk messages on Chantelle, Stephen, Joe, Rem Dog and even Alfie's phones. They get increasingly angry and existential until she's positive that Alfie isn't going to have a clue why she's calling him.</p><p> </p><p>She tries Mitchell as well until she remembers that he can't answer that phone because he's in jail.</p><p> </p><p>Putting on her best totally not drunk voice she calls the prison. Laying on the floor of her shitty studio flat bottle of wine in one hand and her phone in the other waiting for the familiar cadences to wash over her, too rough, too abrasive, so she can take comfort in him.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Jing? You okay? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>She's not sure how she should feel about him assuming something is wrong.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Aren't you in Paris? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>"I'm in Paris." She tells him and it's met with a laugh on his end.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> You're knackered, how did you get through? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>She sits up and puts her serious voice back on, "I am not knackered." She takes a swig from the bottle, "It takes more than a single bottle of cheap wine."</p><p> </p><p>Mitchell's laugh is good natured and comforts all on its own. She sighs heavily and lies back down on the floor.</p><p> </p><p>"There's nothing wrong with me right?"</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Well... </em>
</p><p> </p><p>"Wanker."</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Jing what happened? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>She tells him about the French boy, about how much time they had spent together and the looks and the affection and the ultimate rejection and her stealing wine from a restaurant.</p><p> </p><p><em> Nothing's wrong with </em> you, you're <em> great. He's a twat. Fuck 'em. </em></p><p> </p><p>"I was trying to. I'm going to die a virgin." She grumbles and he laughs.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Mitchell rattles off a Burroughs quote and it throws her a little. It always did when those sparkling instances of brilliance shone through the chaos that was her friend.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> You want to be a writer don't you? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>"You know I do."</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Then don't get drunk and call for validation. Get drunk and write. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>"Mitchell..."</p><p> </p><p><em>Jing you're</em> <em>a fit bird and if I wasn't locked up I'd make sure you didn't die a virgin if you know what I mean and I know you do-</em></p><p> </p><p>There's a commotion on his end.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Shit I gotta go. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>He hangs up before she can say goodbye, before she can say thank you.</p><p> </p><p>Her roommate finds her passed out at the desk, slobbering over angry existential poetry and what might be an accidental love letter to <em> Burroughs </em>.</p><p> </p><p>She doesn't feel bad when she sees the boy the next day, she was a writer, she would thrive on rejection, pain, coffee and the occasional call to a penitentiary back home.</p><p> </p><p>The next time she gets angry and sad and drunk she writes and writes and writes.</p><p> </p><p>Mitchell gets a wine stained letter from her calling him an ass, a wonderful, terrible, hurricane of a person.</p><p> </p><p>It's not until she's reading his response that she realizes she had drunkenly signed the letter <em> love Jing </em>. He doesn't say anything about it but staring at the space between the body of the letter and his name she remembers signing his letter, wine soaked it seemed like the most honest way to sign it.</p><p> </p><p>It gets to the point that she only writes to him when she's drunk, the words more honest no matter how messy they are. His responses are filled with comradery and philosophic insight and they always make even the most terrible day a little better.</p><p> </p><p>They continue writing letters like this long after she comes back from France, when her parents have her stuffed away in a prestigious all girls university.</p><p> </p><p>Getting drunk off of contraband and writing until she passes out and sending him a letter the next day<em> . </em>It's their system but he hasn't sent her a response to her latest letter.</p><p> </p><p>Jing is sitting outside in the lush grounds of a park just outside her college desperately trying to remember what exactly she had said in her last letter. Had she done something stupid again? Had she told him she loved him, <em> really </em> loved him? What could she have said that had ruined everything.</p><p> </p><p>A duffle bag drops at her feet and she narrows her eyes unhappily, looking up ready to tell whoever dared to interrupt her thoughts exactly where they can go-</p><p> </p><p>She jumps up and stares at him, he’s scruffy looking but it's Mitchell under the rough, his eyes the same clear intelligent ones they had been when she last saw him.</p><p> </p><p>"Mitchell..."</p><p> </p><p>"Hey."</p><p> </p><p>"What are you doing here..." She reaches out to touch him but she falls short, she can't seem to push through the forcefield around him.</p><p> </p><p>"I thought you might want these." He holds out a stack of stained letters.</p><p> </p><p>"Oh...sure..." She goes to take them but he holds them up over his head out of her reach, "Mitchell!"</p><p> </p><p>"Kiss me first."</p><p> </p><p>"What!" Her hand drops from its futile attempt, mouth slack, eyes wide.</p><p> </p><p>He smirks at her, "The letters need a good end? If you're going to turn them into a novel right? So I figure either I die or we get together."</p><p> </p><p>"Well I don't want you to die, even though it <em> would </em> be a better end-" he wraps his arms around her and she's not so sure if it would be a better end or not because when she leans up to press her mouth delicately against his own it feels pretty damn good to her.</p><p> </p><p>His hands wander across her body destroying the sweet imagery to the point that she actually pulls back from the kiss, "Mitchell-" she moves his hands up to her waist again.</p><p> </p><p>He shrugs, "I've been in lock up for a while Jing," he kisses her again, "You look good." The words are rough and low against her neck and when they tumble to the grass she knows what kind of end the novel will have.</p><p> </p><p>An offhanded comment about her virginity turned into reality.</p><p> </p><p>She hadnt meant to save herself for him but the knowledge that he would gladly be her first had made her more picky until finally people had just started to assume that the boy she always wrote to was her jailbird boyfriend.</p><p> </p><p>Her first time is rushed in a park in broad daylight. It isn't the best experience but his kisses promise more care in the future, his fingers on her are desperate and his eyes bore into her with an intensity she will later struggle to do justice to.</p><p> </p><p>He doesn't stay long, they spend a few weeks wrapped so deeply around each other that she almost fails a few of her courses. It doesn’t seem important but when he finds out he's gone in the morning and leaves nothing but a hole in her heart.</p><p> </p><p>It's a bestseller. The bastard was right. He had given her a good ending. It spans years, has an ill fated love story and ends with her changed. It hits number one and stays there all summer.</p><p> </p><p>She even gets fan mail and sifting through it she finds one with a prison return address and rips it open.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Jing </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> I love you too. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Mitchell </em>
</p><p> </p><p>She gets drunk and angry and sad and starts the cycle over again. This time they both sign every letter <em> love </em>.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know I'm like five years too late, but I had a bunch of bad education ficlets in my email and I kind of love them. Thought I'd share. There isn't much Jing/Mitchell out there so enjoy.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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